Your printer wants final artwork Friday. The generator you tested all week shows a plan page with four columns, and the only thing that really changes between them is a number next to the phrase "dynamic QR codes." Nothing on that page tells you what happens to the codes already sitting in your account if you stop paying, which is the one thing a print run depends on.
QR pricing looks like a table of numbers. It behaves like a small set of structural models, and once you can name the model a vendor uses, the numbers matter a lot less.
Free static, paid dynamic
The most common structure gives away static codes and charges for dynamic ones. A static code carries the destination inside the pattern itself, so there is no server to run and no ongoing cost to the vendor. A dynamic code points at a redirect the vendor operates, and that redirect has to stay up for as long as your poster exists.
goQR.me runs this split cleanly. Its free generator produces static codes with no account, and the company's own page states plainly that normal static codes are fixed; dynamic codes live in a separate paid product. Scanova arrives at the same shape from the other direction, running a paid dynamic platform with a permanently free static generator beside it. Ours is a third shape. Styling and SVG cost nothing and the file carries no watermark, but the download asks for a free account; there is no static generation here; and dynamic codes with editable destinations and scan analytics are the paid tier.
Freemium that sells the scan, not the code
A second model keeps free codes dynamic and alive indefinitely, then monetizes what happens when someone scans them. ME-QR is the clearest example. Its free codes are dynamic, do not expire, and carry no scan limit. The free tier is ad-supported and the advertising sits in the scan path, so the paid tiers are selling the removal of that step rather than the code itself.
That model is genuinely cheap if your codes are internal, experimental or low-stakes. It reads very differently on a restaurant table tent, where an ad between the scan and the menu is the first thing a customer sees.
Trial-based dynamic, where the code has a clock
The third model bites hardest, because the cost shows up after printing. Scanova's own pricing page states that your dynamic QR code will stop working once the free trial ends. Its static codes are separately free forever, so the risk is specific: a dynamic code generated during evaluation and dropped into artwork stops resolving on a date nobody wrote down.
Shopify's QR options have a related shape. Codes come from third-party App Store apps rather than a built-in Shopify feature, billed per app through the merchant's account, commonly with a short free trial. Those codes generally depend on the app staying installed and subscribed, so uninstalling it or leaving the platform can break live codes. Integration depth is the reason to use them; the dependency is the reason to plan around them.
Anything printed during an evaluation period needs re-checking before the file goes to press. If the artwork will outlive the campaign, start from codes with no expiration rather than hoping the trial terms are generous.
Metering by code count, or by scans
Plans get sized two ways, and the difference decides which vendor is cheap for you.
Code-count metering sizes a plan by how many codes you hold at once. Scanova meters this way. It suits campaigns with a handful of long-lived codes and gets expensive quickly if you generate a code per product, per table or per location. Check the current counts on the plan page before assuming an entry tier fits, because those numbers move.
Scan metering sizes the plan by traffic instead. QR Code Chimp's free plan keeps dynamic codes active rather than expiring them, with a monthly scan allowance that pauses and then resets. Nothing is deleted; scanning simply stops working until the window rolls over. Fine for a slow trickle, awkward on a product that ships in volume.
If you generate in batches, price the batch rather than the code. A bulk run of several thousand codes lands in a completely different tier from a campaign with six.
Vector export sits on both sides of the line
Vector is where two identically priced tools diverge. PNG is fine on screen and marginal at large print sizes. SVG, EPS or PDF is what a printer actually wants.
goQR.me gives SVG, EPS and PDF free with no sign-up, which is unusual, and its generator page says outright that commercial and print usage is allowed. Wix's free tool also offers SVG at no cost. QRStuff puts vector formats (SVG, EPS, PDF, DXF) on paid tiers and leaves PNG on the free one. Scanova puts vector behind payment as well. QR Code Chimp treats SVG as a special case rather than a normal download button, and its help article asks you to email support to have it enabled; the company also notes its SVG follows the SVG 2 standard and may not open correctly in Illustrator or similar design software, which is worth testing before you rely on it.
We include SVG for free. The general rule: check the format list on the current pricing page against what your print workflow needs, because that boundary moves more often than the headline price does.
Pricing that lives inside another product
Some QR pricing is not QR pricing at all. Adobe Express generates codes as a quick action inside a general design tool, and Adobe's documentation notes the codes are static, so changing the URL means generating a new one. The value is that the code drops straight into a template with your brand assets and never leaves the tool. The limits follow from the structure rather than from a plan: no editable destination, no scan reporting, no inventory of what you made.
Wix publishes a similar free utility. Its support article is unusually direct: downloaded codes are static images that cannot change once downloaded, they never expire, there is no limit on how many times they can be scanned, and tracking scan counts is not currently possible. That is an honest description of a free static tool, and for many small sites it is enough.
At the other end, enterprise platforms often route pricing through a calculator or a sales call. Unitag positions itself as a Europe-hosted, GDPR-focused enterprise platform, and its pricing is not readable without JavaScript, so comparison takes a conversation rather than a page view. A legitimate model; just budget the time.
Four questions, then the asymmetry
Before comparing any two plan pages, answer these.
How many codes will you hold twelve months from now? Not today. Per-code metering is priced on your steady state, not your first week.
What happens to live printed codes if you stop paying? Ask in writing. QRStuff shows why: its homepage describes free static codes as free to create, download and use forever with unlimited scans, while the Free Suite bullets on its pricing page list a 30-day expiration alongside small code counts. Those two pages read differently, and a buyer with a print run should get that clarified directly rather than guessing which one applies.
Is vector included, or is it a tier? If it is a tier, the cheap plan is not the cheap plan.
Are scans metered, and what happens at the ceiling? Paused, throttled, billed and dead all mean very different things on a printed poster.
Underneath all four sits one asymmetry. A static code is a one-time cost. A dynamic code is a subscription your printed material depends on. Static gives up editing and analytics permanently; dynamic gives you both, on the condition that someone keeps paying for as long as the print exists. That dependency, not the monthly figure, is what free versus paid really decides.
Open the two plan pages you are choosing between, and before reading a single number, write down which of these models each one uses.
